They are so good at clearing the roads here that you hardly have to worry that the forecast is predicting two foot of snow for the morning. You know that they’ll be out before daybreak clearing the snow and making the roads passable. Apparently the Council workers have to do nightshifts when the forecast is for snow overnight and the person (I got the impression that it’s only one, in Combloux at least) has to check every hour and decide at what point they need to wake their workmate (again, only one I think) to start up the snowploughs and start clearing the roads. Too soon and they’ll just have to do them all over again by the morning and too late and they might have trouble shifting it all.

However, it’s a legal requirement to carry equipment for the tyres (chains or heavy duty grips) so that if you wish to drive in snowy conditions, you should be able to do so safely. I have both chains and ‘easygrips’. There are pros and cons to each. Mostly cons. To both. However, the grips went on today and no sooner was I half a mile from home when one of them decided to shred and wrap itself around my axle. Impossible to get it off on my own, so I was very impressed that I’d managed to block the road in front of a pair of Council workers (possibly those same two), one of whom helped me disentangle the offending grip.